Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the US government’s federal research center in Tennessee, has announced the launch of the Next Generation Data Centers Institute (NGDCI) to integrate AI data centers into the US energy system.

The Institute will have several priorities, including aligning AI data center growth with US energy and security priorities, coordinating across the labs' expertise and facilities, serving as a convening hub for collaboration across national laboratories, industry, utilities, and states, and moving solutions from concept to real-world deployment with partners.

The NGDCI’s work will focus on eight interconnected areas. These include:

• Thermal management and the development of next-generation cooling approaches, such as direct-to-chip and two-phase liquid cooling.
• Redesigning data center power flows through advanced power electronics, direct-current architectures, and integrated energy storage to improve efficiency and reliability.
• Improving grid integration through the use of ORNL test beds to ensure AI data center support rather than strain the grid.
• The development of intelligent platforms that optimize workloads, thermal performance, and power use in real time, coordinating flexible AI loads with grid conditions.
• Embedding cyber-informed engineering into every layer of design and operation.
• Improvement of systems modeling to assess the impacts of AI infrastructure on energy demand, reliability, manufacturing capacity, workforce, and supply chains.
• The use of ORNL’s campus infrastructure and digital twin environments to evaluate cooling, power, and control technologies under realistic conditions, in order to shorten development cycles.
• Strengthening the supply chain and critical minerals in order to support the resilience of energy systems by identifying and developing materials that improve thermal performance, power electronics, and system reliability.

In October, the Department of Energy (DOE) launched a Request for Proposal from companies seeking to build and power AI data centers at ORNL. Oak Ridge was one of several sites identified by the DOE in July for the development of data centers on federal land.

Oak Ridge is a 33,508-acre federally owned site located in the counties of Anderson and Roane in eastern Tennessee. The reservation is home to two primary DOE operations, the ORNL and the Y-12 National Security Complex. ORNL was established in 1943 as the site of the Manhattan Project.